Echoing Silence: Selected Poems
By Parvin Shere
Selected and translated from Urdu by Baidar Bakht
Sang-e-Meel Publications
ISBN: 978-969-35-3551-8
381pp.

"Silence is half consent’ is a proverb that’s often used in our part of the globe. Among other meanings, it refers to the helplessness of the oppressed segments of society. What does a book having the title Echoing Silence imply? It implies that the consent can be heard, albeit in murmurs. Isn’t that a poetic assertion!

Parvin Shere is a poet and a painter. The Patna-born artist lives in Canada, and therefore her Urdu poetry is not as widely known in Pakistan and India as it merits. Critics and poets are familiar with her work, though — which helps immeasurably in the growth of a verse-wielder’s creative life.

The publication of Echoing Silence — poems by Parvin Shere selected and translated into English from Urdu by Baidar Bakht — is a welcome addition to the world of books focusing on Urdu literature. It contains poems from her four published works – Kirchiyaan [Shards], Nehaal-i-Dil Per Sahaab Jaisay [Cloud on the Sapling of the Heart], Chand Seepiyaan Samandaron Se [A Few Seashells from the Oceans], and Bekaraniyaan [Boundless].

The first section has both ghazals and nazms, while the rest, nazms only. Apart from that, there are poems in the book which weren’t included in the four collections.

Now here’s the thing. It is far from easy to translate poetry. The reason is simple: poetry is all about rhythm and the arrangement of words. It is the prosodic movement of a line or a poem that reaches the reader first, and the exercise of extracting meaning out of it only comes later. As T.S. Eliot once famously put, “Poetry can communicate before it’s understood.”

Baidar Bakht’s excellent English translations of selected Urdu poems by Parvin Shere will help bring her the recognition she merits around the world

If one goes along with this observation, then it will become clear that communication precedes understanding. Each language has its own phrasal nuances and syntactical distinctness. Urdu and English are poles apart and have words that are almost, if not utterly, untranslatable. For example, the Urdu word kasak is hard to convey with all its poignancy in any other language.

Bakht is aware of this difficulty. He is an author and translator with established credentials. He knows the importance of rhythm.

So he keeps the tone of poems as close as it is possible for the English language.

This becomes evident from the second piece in the book. In Urdu it’s titled ‘Khud Farebi’ which Bakht in English calls ‘Self-Deception’. Its translation deserves a nod in the affirmative. No less praiseworthy is its moving shoulder to shoulder with the rhythm of the nazm:

Khushk bayaban mein loagon ka
Ik jamghat sa
Sookhay hont liyay phirta hai
Aur phir aakhir…
Aab na paa kar
Raet chaba kar
Apni pyaas ko dhoka de kar
Jeenay ki koshish karta hai

[A crowd of thirsty people
With parched lips
Wander through an arid desert
And then
Unable to find water
Chew on sand
To deceive their thirst —
They try to live an impossible life.]

In terms of the tonality of the work, Bakht moves line by line with the original of Shere’s text. He, however, takes liberty with the semantic aspect of the poem in the last line. He adds the phrase ‘impossible life’ to the metaphorical reference in Urdu to a difficult existence. It serves the purpose well.

The foremost thing one can glean from reading Echoing Silence is the varied subjects that the poetess touches upon, a fact that Bakht is not only aware of, but seems to admire inordinately. Why not? Shere is a fine, fine poet.

This means that if, on the one hand, the poems that delineate her personal journey contain erudition, then the ones in which she focuses on impersonal topics, such as the mysteries enveloping man’s existence, carry noteworthy incisiveness. This is ably highlighted in ‘Bekaraan’ [Boundless].

Zindagi se paray
Zindagi gaamzan hai kahaan
Ye tasalsul kahin khatm hota nahin
Aik pal bhi theherta nahin
Haanpti zindagi daurrti hi chali ja rahi hai yahaan
Paon chhalni huay hain magar dur tak
Bekaraani mein dooba hua kitnay naqsh-i-qadam orrh kar
Ja raha hai na janey kahaan raasta
Zakhm khurda hazaaron qadam
Thak ke ruktay huay
Ruk ke sotay huay
Raasta ta-abad yoonhi chalta hua
Dooriyon ki samandar ki aaghosh mein
Gharq hota hua…

[Where does the life go
Beyond its own self?
This continuum
Never ends,
Never stops
Even for a moment.
The life, panting,
Keeps running
Despite its blistered feet.
The pathway,
Lying wrapped
In boundlessness,
Is leading towards
An unknown destination.
Thousands of wounded feet
Are tired of the journey,
Are drowsing in the journey.
The pathway, nevertheless,
Keeps stretching
Towards the lap of the ocean.]

Going back to the thorny issue of translating poetry, arguably, ghazal is the most challenging genre to translate or transliterate, simply because of its form — that is, the subject of each verse can vary but the metrical structure remains the same. Bakht tries to be faithful to the text in one of the ghazals:

Tez baarish mein bhi safar rakhna
Apni poshaak khushk tar rakhna

Khaar jab zakhm dein sama’at ko
Lab-i-gulrez ka hunar rakhna

Un ke haathon mein phool hon phir bhi
Jaan pe pathar ki ik sipar rakhna

Shor-o-ghul ke ghaneray jungle mein
Apni aawaz mukhtasar rakhna

[Keep travelling even in rain
But keep your robe always dry

When thorns hurt your ears
Recall the art of giving roses with your lips

Even when people have roses in their hands
Guard your life with a shield for stones

In the dark jungle of noise and clamour
Try to keep your statement brief]

The book is recommended!

The reviewer is a member of staff

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, June 2nd, 2024